You Go Moose

The Mike Mussina haters out there are going to have to wait for another day to bag on the Moose. Mike pitched a great game tonight. I was most impressed with his ability to effectively change speeds. He doesn't need to have a blazing fastball if he can get a 20 MPH difference between his "heater" and his change. If you've been a reader of this blog for a while then you know I'm a big Moose guy. I'm a card carrying member of the Mike Mussina Fan Club. Yes there is one of you didn't know. If you're a Moose fan I highly suggest joining. But anyway, I think he's one of the best pitchers of my generation. My friend Dave likes to come around and jump all over him whenever he has a poor outing. Ironically, Dave only seems to comment here when Moose pitches. Odd. Nobody can bag on him tonight. He pitched a great game and picked up career win #252, despite the efforts of LaTroy Hawkins and Mike Myers, err I mean Billy Traber. As I said with Myers last year, what good is a lefty specialist if they can't get out lefties?

Crossing the bridge to Mariano continues to be a big struggle. I was initially impressed with Traber at the beginning of the season, but now, not so much. It drove me nuts all last year to watch the so-called "lefty specialist" continue to get battered around by lefties. Going into today lefties were hitting .333 off Traber. His WHIP against lefties was 1.91. And with Thome's single off him tonight those #s only go up. Not good. Not good. And Hawkins? They need to keep him out of close games or have him on a quick hook. Brutal. Just brutal.

It's a shame that Girardi had to go to Mariano Rivera for a 5 out save. It's no surprise that it was 5 up and 5 down. Mo is off to a great start. He's now thrown 9 innings on the year and has yet to allow a run. He's only given up 4 hits, walked none, and whiffed 8. Last year through 8.2 innings, Mo had allowed 11 hits, 9 ER, 3 walks, 9 Ks, had 2 blown saves, and was 1-2 with 1 save. What a difference a year makes? Wow. Best. Closer. Ever.

The offense again showed signs of breaking out of its slump. Jorge Posada had a huge night at the plate going 4-5 with 3 2Bs. His average is now north of .300. They're still not running on all cylinders. Jeter has struggled his last few games and Robbie Cano, ugh, don't get me started. I know Cano typically starts slow, but come on, you can't be hitting .165. I'm sure history will repeat itself and he'll be getting it going any day now.

The Yanks are now 12-10 and are on a mini-roll having won 3 in a row. Last year through 22 games they were 9-13. Considering their recent trend of starting cold and digging themselves a huge hole, I'm very encouraged by where they are right now. They'll no doubt heat up and get super hot in the coming weeks. Tomorrow's game should be interesting. Phil Hughes gets the ball and he really needs to have a good outing. I think if he can pitch well and nail down the series sweep, he's going to take off. I hope he's watched the 3 vets over the last 3 games and that he took away from their starts that he needs to throw strikes. That's all he needs to do.

It's as simple as that.

J-Boogie